Hiking - Saint-Martin Loop
This walk alternates between forest paths and the Morvan countryside, passing near Vésigneux Castle.
Alternating forest and hedgerow landscape (bocage).
The Morvan bocage
The identity of the Morvan landscape is intrinsically linked to this hedgerow network (bocage) that still delineates numerous small plots. Different fencing techniques are used: dry hedges, low live hedges, tall laid hedges, dry-stone walls, or even barbed wire. After centuries of subsistence polyculture (rye, wheat, oats, buckwheat, barley...) supplemented by some livestock farming, Morvan agriculture, after 1960, specialized in Charolais suckler cow farming (raising young animals sold for breeding or fattening). Today, the bocage is in decline due to the progressive regrouping of plots, the removal of hedges replaced by barbed wire, the rewilding of distant land, and the increase in forest area. Preserving this fragile landscape network is necessary from both an agricultural perspective (protection of cattle against climatic hazards) and an environmental one. The bocage is a rich environment. In addition to the thirty or so shrub species present in the hedges, it harbors valuable plant and animal species: the bird cherry, whorled Solomon's seal, the shrike, the little owl, the great spotted woodpecker, the sparrowhawk, the bicolored shrew, the lesser horseshoe bat...
Alternating forest and hedgerow landscape (bocage).
The Morvan bocage
The identity of the Morvan landscape is intrinsically linked to this hedgerow network (bocage) that still delineates numerous small plots. Different fencing techniques are used: dry hedges, low live hedges, tall laid hedges, dry-stone walls, or even barbed wire. After centuries of subsistence polyculture (rye, wheat, oats, buckwheat, barley...) supplemented by some livestock farming, Morvan agriculture, after 1960, specialized in Charolais suckler cow farming (raising young animals sold for breeding or fattening). Today, the bocage is in decline due to the progressive regrouping of plots, the removal of hedges replaced by barbed wire, the rewilding of distant land, and the increase in forest area. Preserving this fragile landscape network is necessary from both an agricultural perspective (protection of cattle against climatic hazards) and an environmental one. The bocage is a rich environment. In addition to the thirty or so shrub species present in the hedges, it harbors valuable plant and animal species: the bird cherry, whorled Solomon's seal, the shrike, the little owl, the great spotted woodpecker, the sparrowhawk, the bicolored shrew, the lesser horseshoe bat...